HISHE The Last Jedi
by Knightime
Summary: From REAL lightsaber duels to HOPED-FOR reveals, this How It Should Have Ended, written by a guy who BOTH loved AND hated The Last Jedi the very FIRST time, is EVERYTHING you wanted when YOU saw it!
1. ACT I: Gale

Disclaimer: Um… I think this goes without saying, but… I don't own any of this… Maybe one day. Marvel—I mean, Disney—owns the characters, and—well, the imagination which will bring my words to life is owned by _you._

Author's Note: It's been a _while._ I've missed you guys. Sorry it's been so long. This is a little treat I've prepared for you. I hope it's everything you hoped for. If you have not seen the movie, expect spoilers. Pretty massive ones. But know that I've pretty drastically altered things. Anyway, this is my second work on FanFiction. My first one was sadly left incomplete years ago. But, for those of you who were fans of _Out On Our Own,_ a sequel to my re-imagining of the origins of the Teen Titans is in the works as we speak, as well as accompanying Spotify playlists. ...This story picks up in the scene in _The Last Jedi_ when Rey and Ben Solo are preparing for their _Force-touch_ moment, Rey in her bungalow and Ben supposedly just having gotten out of the shower. When Luke and Rey first begin to fight, Luke uses his staff instead of just pulling out his lightsaber to begin with because he starts off going easy on her.

ACT I

 _GALE_

PROLOGUE

The warmth of the flames, the _thrum_ of rain falling on shingles, the tingle of the Force at her fingertips—hshe was reaching out with everything she had!

And then—

The door burst open, in came Luke, and there she was—Rey—with her spectral boyfriend, Kylo Ren.

Rey screamed. "You can't just walk in on me like this, _Dad!_ You're invading my privacy!"

 _The Last Jedi_

 **How It Should Have Ended**

Rey didn't actually say that out loud, but as her boyfriend disappeared and the bricks of her hut flew away in all directions, letting the cold rain of the night steal in upon her, she wished she had, well, yelled something _like that_ at least.

She pursued Luke up the mountainside, berating him with questions, screaming—"IS IT _TRUE_? Did you try to _kill_ Ben Solo? Is _ALL_ of this _your fault?_ "

Luke was just about to respond, saying, "Rey, look," but before he could get out any more words—in an _instant_ of rage—Rey struck out with her staff and hit him in the back.

But Luke simply turned around and responded in kind—not with words, but with his staff.

And they dueled, there in the night, in the rain.

Finally, Rey struck him down to the cold steps, _Accio_ 'ed her lightsaber from her now soaking bag, and, flaming it into his face, shrieked, " _LISTEN TO ME!"_

But Luke whipped out his own lightsaber from beneath his cloak, and as it flared green he batted hers away. He stood like lightning, face to face with her now, and bringing his lightsaber up to eye level, locked with hers, he snarled, "No, _you_ listen to _me!"_ Suddenly he bashed her away from him and attacked, and so they dueled again, there in the black rain upon the ancient bricks and steps of the First Jedi Temple, green and blue flashing as the blades crackled and smashed. " You're just some silly brat from nowhere," he sneered, "who thinks she's a no it all Jedi warrior—thinks she's _good_ enough to duel Luke _Skywalker!_ "

"I didn't even _know_ you _had_ a lightsaber! And—"

"Ha!" spat Luke, swinging his lightsaber with Jedi strength which she could only barely block. "Not feeling so smart any more, little girl, are you? They probably told you that's my lightsaber, didn't they? You probably felt _drawn_ to it, didn't you?"

"Yes," she gasped, parrying another thunderous strike, "I—I did. And it—it showed me things."

Luke lashed at her once more. "Oh yeah?" This wasn't like fighting Ren had been. Skywalker was a different kind of monster! His skills were mad—!

Again, another near hit sent a shock through her system. "Yes!" screamed Rey. "It showed me this place! It showed me you—your _memories!_ And my own! Past, present, _and_ future! Are you saying it was all a—a lie—?"

"I'm saying you should have thought a little longer before you tried to duel me, missy!"

Rey was desperate. "Please believe me—ah!" She was totally on the defensive—he was driving her up against a temple ledge! "I didn't want—I _don't_ want to _fight you!"_ This burst of anger gave her the strength to give a sudden surge of power, and blasted her way out of Skywalkers trap. She danced away from him backwards into the rain, face lit blue by her gently buzzing 'saber. "I was only trying to get your attention! I didn't _know_ you had a lightsaber of your own!"

She was pleading with him now, hot tears mingling with the cold rain on her face, but suddenly he was right on her—his flashing 'saber held high—crashing down on her—!

"Not much of a doubt in your mind anymore, is there, princess?"

Rey growled. "Don't call me— _PRINCESS!"_ She gave a guttural shriek and plunged breathlessly back into battle with Luke, but he hadn't broken a sweat. "Didn't you hear _any_ of the stories about me?" he asked her as he allowed her to take the upper hand and force him backwards down a flight of stairs he knew well. "Didn't you ever hear of how _Darth Vader_ cut off my _hand?_ " He held up his black-gloved hand for the fleetingest instant for her to appraise anew in the blended glow of their lightsabers, but Rey thought it was curious Luke didn't refer to Vader as his father, as he always had in their few talks up till no.

But he was going on… "How he sent it falling down—with my lightsaber into the abyss under cloud city? Didn't you ever wonder that if I fell down there, too, and I ended up coming _out_ from under the place, _it_ might have, too?"

"You built a new one," she breathed, but in that moment of thought and realization Luke performed a stunning flip-twist move, landing deathly inches behind her. It was all she could do to allow him to maneuver her darkly into the blackness behind her as he beat on her lightsaber like a mongrel, forcing her over a narrow, slippery support strut connecting the edge of the Temple grounds to a cliff wall across a short chasm; the black waters churned and swelled far below..

"Cleverly put, girly!" he said, meanly. "Any other ' _inspired words of wisdom_ ' you'd like to share with the class?"

Rey just yelled out, half due to the pain that shot up her left arm after breaking the force of Skywalker's last hit. "I'm just so confused!" she cried. "I just want—"

"You want answers!" bellowed Luke, and with that swatted her back with her lightsaber so hard she flew through the pouring water into the mountainside behind her, her lightsaber hanging meekly at her side, darkened and sheathed as she panted up at his greenly-lit, dragonish face. "You're just a teenager, a silly _girl._ You have no patience. You want _all_ your questions answered _now, now, now—_ well, I've got news for you, _missy!_ Maybe I was _going_ to tell you what you've been wanting to know, but—oh no! You're not getting _nothing_ outta me tonight! Not anymore!" His eyes were flaming! He was crazy!

Rey's wimpish caving-in boiled over into rage, and her tear-smeared, bleary-eyed face contorted into the most horrible mask of rage Luke had ever seen, and her new shriek of wrath was more pronounced than any sound she'd uttered that night—more terrible than any animal sound she'd ever heard, for that matter. She ignited her saber one more time, for a crashing finale atop that narrow bridge which led nowhere, and swinging it up against Skywalker's with all her might, she yelled, "Well then I have nothing left to lose!"

Skywalker was not prepared for this. Her power, when unleashed, was beyond him! She beat him back, now, to the middle of the bridge, where he finally gave way and fell—not over the side of the bridge, he Force-steadied himself enough to avoid _that,_ but down onto his back in front of her. She raised her blade, growling out from gritted teeth—h

But Skywalker's eyes flashed, and he lunged up from beneath her and slashed down on her raised blade harder than ever he had done yet—her 'saber went flying, still ignited—and with all the air in his lungs, Luke Skywalker said, "ENOUGH! _DON'T_ MAKE ME _HURT_ YOU, RAY!"

And she scowled up at him from where she was, now crumpled in a heap at his feet from the earth-shattering force of his final blow, as he glared down at her, lightsaber still shining prone in his hand. Then, after what seemed a long silence, he began to growl, barely audible over the violent wind of the storm.

"You want answers, Rey? Well, _I'll give 'em to you._ "

And so, the duel won, they spoke. And when Rey had heard all her master had to say—at dawn—she departed the planet with Chewie aboard the Millennium Falcon.

"Where there was weakness, I now sense strength. Where there was hesitancy, I now sense resolve…"

(Door of elevator opens and Rey and Ben are _totally_ making out! No, just kidding… That could _never_ happen...)

Rey was kneeling again, this time in the throne room of the Supreme Leader of the New Order, Snoke, before Kilo Ren, her nemesis, and now her executioner.

"I see him turning the lightsaber," breathed Snoke in a giant's voice whisper which carried and filled the whole chamber, "to slay his _true_ enemy…"

And then Ren cut Snoke in half force-using the perfectly positioned lightsaber which had once belonged to his uncle, and cut to pieces all the red guards in the room with Rey.

Then Ren began to talk to her, in a voice which needed no Bane-like amplification. "Join me, Rey. We can rule the galaxy together. _It's time to let old things die, Rey…_ " He held out his hand to her, and she reached out to take it…

But in the last minute flung it out and grabbed Ren's throat, pulling her face down near to hers to snarl—"I'll never join you, Ben, you _snake!_ "

And then she tossed him away from her, force-grabbed her lightsaber, and igniting it, dueled him.

As they dueled, Ren crooned, "What did Master Skywalker say when he _saw_ us, Rey? Did he give you _answers_?"

Rey flashed back for an instant to that conversation above the churning waters, then quickly came back to the present. There were more important things. Don't let him distract you. "He told me _the truth_ , you _animal!_ He told me how he never meant to kill you! The instant he ignited his lightsaber he regretted it!"

But Rey's voice was cracking and tears were welling up in her eyes as she said it, and Ren was not oblivious to it. She was holding something back; _hiding_ something.

"Oh?" he whispered to her in that deep, epic voice of his. "Is that _all_?"

An instant's hesitation as they battled, then Rey gnashed her teeth at him, _"Yes!_ That was it!" she said. "He told me everything I need to know about _you!_ "

Ben shook his head. "Rey, I _know_ you're lying to me. I know there's something more. It's okay. You can put down your lightsaber. I won't hurt you anymore. Just talk to me, Rey. That's all I want. There you go… good girl…"

The beam of her lightsaber had wavered; then she had lowered it; extinguished it; and now it had slipped through her fingers, falling to the floor with a magnified _crash_ and rolling away, leaving Rey standing there, crying, sobbing, sobbing silently as Ben walked slowly up to her, his lightsaber extinguished as well in truce.

"Oh, oh… Poor thing," he said softly, looking softly into her eyes. She tried to look away, to deny the tingling feeling deep within herself that was stirring within her at his nearness, but the effort was worthless. She fell to her knees at his feet, sobbing out loud now.

When Luke had smashed her to the ground to cower before him (in a scene surface-level like the present one, but in reality wholly opposite) and sent her lightsaber flying into the abyss, he had said, "Enough. Don't make me hurt you, Rey. You want answers? Well, I'll give them to you."

Then he had held out his hand, and the lightsaber, now a hundred feet beneath them and still ignited, had stopped its fall towards the waters, halted like a glowing blue star in the blackness of the storm. Then it slowly began to float upwards toward them till, extinguished, it slapped down between them onto the wet stone bridge.

Holding his green lightsaber prone before him, angled downwards, its green glow lighting his scarred and scowling face from below, his long hair a black mop in the rain, falling over his face and blowing in the torrential rains, he said,

"I'm your father, Rey."


	2. ACT II: Crescendo

Disclaimer: Disney and Marvel—I mean, Lucasfilm—own it all. But you own your imagination.

Author's Note: This chapter picks up _directly_ after Act I. If you haven't read that one, doing so would probably help.

ACT II

 _CRESCENDO_

"I'm your father, Rey."

Rey's eyes had widened, there on the bridge leading to nowhere, in the torrent, above the black and boiling waters. She was bewildered! Confused! Elated! Terrified! _This_ man? _HIM? My_ father?

Then he had gone on to explain how the thirty years that had elapsed since the slaying of the Emporer, the defeat of the Empire, the victory of the Rebellion, and the institution of the New Republic—all this time had not been spent by him in solitude. He had rejoiced with Han, Lando, Leia… He had been han's best man at the wedding… He had given his father a proper Jedi funeral… He'd been there when little Ben was born...

And he began to teach Leia the ways of the force, and others with her. A whole new generation of Jedi was rising!

"And then I met _her…_ " Luke said over hot tea back in his bungalow, the fire raging nearby in the hearth, both wrapped warmly in blankets after the cold rain as he addressed his tale alternately to the floor and the flames. "Mara Jade…

"I was young… foolish… She attempted to assaassinate me and I fell in love with her immediately. It was wonderful… I knew that Jedi were not allowed to be married, but _I_ didn't care!" His old youthful zeal seemed to be coming back to his voice now. " _We_ were in _love!_ Anything was possible! I was contemplating a whole new way of things… _a new order…_ One where there didn't _have_ to be balance! Not between—light and darkness, good and evil! Where Light could _win_ over the Darkness, not just _hold it at bay…_ "

For the first time, Luke looked up at Rey, and she saw his face was glowing even brighter than the fire under all his shaggy, gray, adolescent hair.

"And then _you_ came along. Our little _ray of sunshine…_ " He was beaming.

"But…" And here a little of the darkness—the tiredness—stole back over his face again with a sigh…

"But, we knew that if we were really going to raise up _a whole new Order_ of Jedi to defend the Republic, we were going to have to get serious." Another sigh, another level added to the veil of darkness covering over the young face again and making it old. "And so we brought you to Jakku. It seemed like the perfect place! Well, not real _nice,_ but… symbolic. In the old days it had been called Scarif, and they say it was a beautiful place—a real paradise. But, that's all—ancient history. Nobody remembers the stories except… Old Luke."

"What do you mean?" asked puzzled Rey.

During the days of the old Empire, a rogue rebel squadron had led a makeshift assault on an Imperial base on Scarif to steal the plans for the original Death Star, leading to one of the first ("if not the _very_ first") battles of the old Rebellion. Many Bothans died in that battle.

"Unfortunately though, the very same Death Star was used on the planet in an attempt to stop the rebels from succeeding. And though the plans were successfully stolen, it wasn't without cost to the planet itself. You know, the Death Star wasn't fully operational yet, meaning a blast from it wasn't going to obliterate the entire planet; but that one blast still destroyed the planet's ecosystem. The seas dried up, the trees were incinerated, and nearly the whole planet became nothing but desert."

Rey finally began to comprehend. "Like Tatooine." The old Scarif had been completely wiped from memory, and the newly dubbed desert world of Jakku was all anyone in the galaxy remembered.

Luke nodded. "Exactly. Just like my childhood home, which lent some… sentimentality to the decision to leave you there."

"Okay, okay," said Rey, attempting to bring Luke back to the present, "But what about your promise. You haven't gotten yet to the part where you tell me _why_ you never came for me."

Luke became grave. "This, Rey, is where you cousin reenters the story."

"Ben Solo."

"Ben indeed," agreed Luke. "When we left you there, it was only supposed to be for a couple of years, until your mom and I could set up the temple. Then we were coming back for you. You were three, and Ben was eight. Well, there was a lot to be done, and two years stretched into five years, and five years into eight years, and by now you were eleven, and Ben was sixteen. I was _just_ getting ready to return for you when Ben finally turned.

"Your mother believed in him though. 'There's still light in him,' she said. 'We can turn him back,' she said. She sounded a lot like _you_ actually," he said, his tone darkening further to deep bitterness. "But it didn't turn _out_ that way. I tried to kill Ben against your mother's wishes—secretly. In the night. And brought the stones of his hut down on top of me. He must have thought I was dead. Meanwhile, he went and killed my Mara, slaughtered every last one of the other students, even those closest and most _loyal_ to him, and burned the temple to the ground."

"At which point," clarified Rey, "he fled the planet in a spaceship and met up with Snoke and his Palpatine's old followers in the Outer Rim and started his 'new Order.'"

"Exactl—" started Luke, but Rey wasn't finished.

"And in the course of beginning a new Empire and a reign of terror as the Crown Prince of Snoke the Conqueror, our Kylo Ren put a bounty on your head and forced you into exile before you could save _me._ "

Luke sighed. "I was about to tell you you were exactly right. Now I have to tell you you're perfectly wrong."

"I _am,_ am I?" exclaimed Rey.

Luke nodded darkly. "Rey," he began, "I was a Jedi _Master._ The son of Darth of Vader. I could've gone back for you without getting _caught._ "

"Then _why_ didn't you?!"

Luke was silent for a long moment. Rey listened to the rain beginning to die on the roof until he said, "Rey, when Ben Solo turned on me and slaughtered my wife, I realized that all my New Order ideas were a bunch of _crap._ There is no _defeating_ the Darkness. You just have to wait until—until it passes. But you can't beat it."

"And _that's_ why you left me—?"

"No, Rey, I left you there because I knew you would be alright. I knew your path would lead you off of that _rat's_ nest of a planet. I just hoped it wouldn't lead you to me."

Rey's temperature began to rise again. "So, let me get this _all_ straight. I'm the daughter you never wanted, who you basically _forgot_ about for eight years until your _very first_ attempt at building a school failed, at which point you _entirely_ gave up on life and left me to _die_ with no parents in the middle of a giant dead desert planet—and you didn't even feel _sorry_ about it?"

The young Luke had now entirely died, with the rain. He looked passively into her eyes from behind his long, gray hair, and suddenly smiled down at her. "Incredible," he breathed, and for _an instant_ she thought she was about to heat him say something kind. But then the smile dropped completely. "Everything you've said is completely right."

Morning was coming outside and Luke was ready to be finished with this long, emotional confession, but just as he was putting his hand to the door Rey started _fuming._

" _HOLD_ ON!" she yelled. "So you've—been— _LYING_ TO ME—this _whole_ time?"

Luke nodded simply, as though she had commented on the sky's being blue.

" _Pretending_ you didn't know why I was here, where _Jakku_ was—Who _I_ was—?"

"Oh, I couldn't be sure at first," said Luke scathingly.

"No, _really! '_ Girl' shows up on _your_ planet with _your_ old lightsaber, with hair which is, as _you_ yourself said, _just like your own late wife's!_ And you couldn't be sure!"

Luke nodded as if it was self-evident. "Are… Are we _finished?_ Yet? Do you think you've got enough _answers_ for one morning, _Daughter?_ "

Rey broke. " _YES!_ " she shrieked. "Yes, we're _through!_ I hope you _do_ die here! Just as alone as you _deserve_ to be!"

"Thank you, I do, too," said Luke.

"Aaaaaaaar-aaaaaaaagh!" screamed Rey. "Chewie, we're leaving!"

Chewbacca began to protest, but Rey was not to be denied. "No, Chewie, no _buts!_ NOW!"

Chewie sadly acquiesced, and as the _Falcon_ sped off into the dawn, Luke slammed the door of his hut and Rey sobbed uncontrollably on Chewie's shoulder.

She was sobbing again, on her knees before the same Ben Solo, hugging his legs, her story told.

Ben finally knelt down with her, stroked her hair. "Say it, Rey. Let it out, it's okay," he murmured.

Through uncontrollable convulsions of sorrow, she stammerred, "I-I w-was… I was _nothing_ to—to him…"

"That's right," said Ben. "You're nothing. To him, you're nothing but an accident. A nobody." He took her hands, and gently guided her again to her feet. He held her, brushed her hair from her tear-streaked face with his left hand; she wiped her eyes with her right hand, but allowed him to keep her left hand held firmly but gently in his right. He leaned in, his lips brushed her hair. " _But not to me,_ " he whispered.

Rey wiped another tear from her leaky eyes and stared up at him; that tingling within her was becoming uncontrollable now.

He brought his lips from her ear and looked her in the eyes. "You're not nothing to me," he said. "I see you for who you really are. It doesn't matter to me who your father is. I love you for you, Rey. Please, forgive me for everything."

She was starstruck, wide-eyed. A schoolgirl.

He was murmuring again.

"You need a teacher; let me teach you. You need a protector; I will never betray you. Marry me, Rey. _Marry me._ "

She stammered. "Ben…"

"No," said Dark Prince Kylo Ren. "Hush. Just hush. It's okay. I love you… my Princess."

And so she let him hug her there in the flaming, broken throne room, and she returned his embrace and placed her still, wet face in his soft shoulder.

"We lost Finn!"

It was Captain Po, running back into the command center in the bunker in the old Rebel base. Leia shook her head in dismay… She'd liked that boy… _Snap out of it…_ What was coming over her?

"Who else?" she croaked.

"Well, his girlfriend Rose died, too, as well as almost all of our pilots. We have just one bleeding alien left."

"So… Let me get this straight, Captain," said Leia. "You ordered a full retreat, and _still_ , every single one of your pilots dies?"

"Well—"

"Oh, right. Except for _you_ , of course."

Po whimpered, "And the bleeding alien."

"What a loser," said Leia. "Now you're _really_ fired."

The attack run _had_ been a success, though; no thanks to Po. He'd ordered all to fall back, but Fin and launched himself directly into the Battering Ram Cannon. Whether Rose had died in the _massive_ explosion caused by the destruction of the cannon, or had been picked off by an AT-AT whose captain was her as easy bait, was unknown. However, the explosion _was_ so spectacular that in itself, it destroyed on of the AT-AT's nearest it and wounded another critically. Great job, Fin.

But the First Order had been prepared for this contingency. They ordered their attack line to fall back—at first the Resistance thought they were retreating! But really it was to give their _Dreadnaughts_ an open target to fire on the door—from outer _space!_ So the attack run had bought us _a little extra time…_ And now there was the sound of a continual _pounding, pounding, pounding_ on the door…

Until at last—presently—

 _BANG! CRASH! DOOM!_

The entire door—or what was left of it—caved in and was slashed off its hinges onto the hanger floor… A crumpled, melted wreck of space slag, like the Resistance itself. And now the attack line was advancing again…

But then—

"General!" cried one of Leia's pretty aids. "What's-that?"

Over the crunch and boom of oncoming attack vessels over salty snow, a light buzzing and wirring could be heard… growing _louder…_

Leia's eyes were distant. "I know that sound…" she murmured.

"That's—"

"Is that—"

"That's an X-Wing!" exclaimed Po, beaming!

"But who-?"

And then it swept into view, landing in the quickly narrowing space between the oncoming First Order attackers, and the defenseless Resistance survivors.

And the attack line stopped.

The cockpit opened.

"I _know_ that _ship…_ " said Leia.

And out from the lone fighter, stepped-

"Master Luke!" cried C3PO, with un-robotic glee.

" _Luke!_ " Leia rushed out to him, despite the dangers. Po put out his arm when they went to stop her, saying,

"Let her go."

When she flung her arms around his neck like a schoolgirl, she cried, "Luke! You're _real!_ "

And so siblings embraced, there on the red and white striped battlefield. Now she knew what that _feeling_ was earlier… They were connected through the Force, of course! She had been sensing Luke's pain and exertion across all those lightyears of the cosmos as he had lifted his X-Wing a last time from water, to make his final voyage through the stars…

"But really, Leia." Luke was stern. "The First Order is kind of about to, well, I don't know, wipe out the last of the Resistance _forever_? Maybe there's not a lot of time for a weepy reunion between siblings. I mean, I _was_ going to apologize for something, but…"

"Oh—" gasped Leia.

"No, I might be wrong—" said Luke, dragging out the moment with sinister, Sithlike sarcasm.

"No, no, you're right," said Leia mollified. "We'll just have to… catch up _another_ time…"

Then she retreated to the hanger, and all was silent out on the battle field as the _one_ dead AT-AT smoked behind the lines, unwanted…

Luke stared up at the command ship with a Force stare…

And then—

Ever. _Single._ Gun. On the battlefield. Began to fire on Luke.

The booming of AT-AT cannons' continual barage totally obliterated the sound of Luke's X-Wing exploding violently.

"Oh no!" cried Po. "His X-Wing!"

"What do you mean, 'His X-Wing?'" Leia sounded stern. "That's my brother!"

"No," said Po, "I mean… There could've been valuable secrets left within that X-Wing to help us defeat the First Order once and for all… If only Luke had of left his X-Wing on his secure secret planet which no one in the _entire_ Universe knows how to get to but us, and not come in person. I mean, he's like, the most _powerful_ Jedi warrior _ever_ —in like, the _History of the Universe._ Surely he could've sent like, a 'Force-hologram' or something instead, in his place?"

Leia turned away in disgust. "Now you're just making things up, kid. Don't be so _silly_ , that's impossible."

Then the cannons ceased, and the smoke and the dust began to clear… and there stood Luke!

Again Leia cried out. "You're alive! How…?

Luke thre a quick ink over his shoulder to C3PO, then turned back again to face the command ship now setting down upon the snow.

Within it, Ben was preparing to exit for battle, but turned first to say over his shoulder to a masked, shadowed figure, "Wait in here till my signal. It'll make it more… _impactful,_ for him." The black figure nodded its assent, as with blowing smoke and steam the door opened, and…

Out from the darkness into the blinding white cold stepped the Dark Prince Kylo Ren.

Each raised his lightsaber, Kylo Ren's with the cracked crystal purring crazily and crackling bloodred, Luke's soft and green. "You've come!" shouted Ben. "...Uncle."

"I'm here," agreed Luke with a nod.

"I don't know how you survived _that,_ " sneered the Prince, "but—"

Luke cut him off. " _Force-_ field!" he yelled across the distance. " _DUH._ Didn't you I ever teach you that one? Oh, right. You turned to the Dark Side, didn't you. There not as fun over there."

"I turned because you— _you failed me!_ " shrieked Ren. "But— _Ah!_ Quit distracting me."

Luke put up his hands as if to say, _Point taken._

" _As_ I was saying," growled Ben, " _However_ you survived that barrage, you'll wish you hadn't."

And they dueled. Quickly. Harshly. Insanely. Crazily. It was the most incredible, epic lightsaber duel ever in all recorded history in the galaxy. The bangs and crashes of their swords rang out over the long distance into the bunker and flew high into the white sky. Their swords moved so fast no one could watch them. The way they _moved_ … Luke was like a man far younger… Like a young boy staring up into the horizon…

They were evenly matched, and the battle climaxed into a 'saber lock in which the two Masters faced eachother eye to eye inches apart between their swords making a giant electric "X". And then the first round was over, and they flung apart from one another to regroup and pant, and stare each other down dramatically.

Then Luke was saying, "...If you cut me down in anger…"

But suddenly Ben started laughing at him. He extinguished his lightsaber and clipped it violently to his belt and flung his arms up into the air as if being crucified, and began to circle slowly to the side."No, _Uncle!_ " he cried. _"_ I know who I am now… What I'm about… What I've got to _do…_ "

Luke followed him with squinted eyes, even lowering his lightsaber a few degrees as he racked his brains— _What was Ben_ doing _?_ Seeking stalemate? Declaring Luke the winner of their duel?

But then Ben suddenly screamed—

"No, Uncle—it is not _MY_ place to kill you!"

Luke realized what was going on too late. He had turned 90-degrees to watch Ben Solo, but only now did he realize what he had been up to—Ben had not been giving up; he'd been _distracting_ him! He'd been _giving a signal!_

Luke wasn't quick enough to lift his lightsaber, but he had just enough time to turn his eyes before—

Enough time to see a black form stepping out from the gaping shadow of the interior of the command ship—out onto the ramp—raising his hand high—

—Lightning arced from her fingertips!—

" _NOW, DO IT!"_ shrieked Ben. " _KILL SKYWALKER, COMPLETE YOUR TRAINING—!_ "

Luke fell into heap in the snow after that first blast, and looked up pitifully as the black, hooded, masked figure, which he could see now was a girl, stepped forward further into the light, though still elevated atop the ramp leading down from the vessel… watched painfully as she pulled back her hood, removed her mask…

 _No… It can't be…_

"Do it, do it now," said Ben. "Complete your training… Rey."


	3. ACT III: Finale

Disclaimer: Disney and Lucasfilm own it all, and by the way, HISHE actually owns HISHE. I didn't invent the term, but this if they're listening, I hope they like what they hear. But in any case, the imagination which brings it all to life is owned by you.

Author's Note: To try to capture the spirit of the story, Kylo Ren is alternately referred to as "Ren" and "Ben." Try to keep up. …I hope I handle your characters well.

ACT III

 _FINALE_

"Do it, do it now," smirked Ben. "Complete your training… Rey."

The instant Rey had released Luke from the sting of her lightning Ben had immediately outstretched his own hand to lock Luke gaspingly in place and retrieve Luke's fallen lightsaber from the ground in front of him; it had flown into Ben's hand without a sound while Luke had no choice but to stare upon the dark beauty of his daughter: The beauty which had come from her mother, and the darkness which he had created by _rejecting_ her so violently and foolishly.

The black mask and dress had been created by Ben's men long ago in preparation for this very moment. The mask was not a copy or duplicate of his own, but rather a compliment to it, and the dress was ravishingly perfect upon Rey's form. The skirt was cut rebelliously diagonal, and underneath it her legs were sheathed in form fitting black leather. Her arms were bare from the shoulder to the elbow, in direct mimicry of Rey's own old styles, and the revealed skin was supernaturally pale as though the evil powers of the Dark Side of the Force were having a drastically pronounced _life-sucking_ effect on her. This pale effect was highlighted even more severely in her face, which had been painted white to accent the goth black makeup styled over her eyes, lips, and cheekbones. Her hair, too, had been dyed to a greasy charcoal black, and permitted to fall seductively over her face and shoulders. Her black cape was taught in the wind.

She made the perfect Sith Queen.

Everything Luke had wanted to say to her since his discussion with the Force-ghost of Yoda was trapped half-way up his constricted throat due to Ren's powerful Force-choke—then Rey put her hand out again and began to shock him once more, even more severely now—continuously, for minutes on end, as she slowly, slowly, slowly padded further down the ramp towards him.

As she shocked Luke violently, Ren screamed to her as an instructer to a pupil—as her _Teacher—_ " _Kill your father as I killed mine! It was YOUR lightsaber that slew the old Supreme Leader, and his powers have passed onto you! Kill your father—he HAD his chance, but did he take it? NO! He rejected you! He is nothing to you! Let him die! Let the Past DIE, Rey! Let REY die this day, too, and take up your new name as a Sith Lordess—_ "

Abruptly the crashing and thunder of the lightning was silenced. Rey turned her head to look at her bridegroom Ren, and said quizzically, "New name? New _name?_ What shall I be called then?" Ben started to answer, but with a look Rey silenced him, too. Luke, frozen by pain as well as by the Force, was left simply to watched this strange interaction between the seemingly newly betrothed couple as Rey then swiftly continued, "I will _not_ be called 'Kylo _Rey._ '"

Ben was at a loss. He opened his hands as though in surrendur, and, looking down and shaking his head just slightly, "Well, whatever you want, I guess, Hon." Then he looked up at her and smiled, and she smiled to and nodded her head to her own beat as she surveyed the horizon.

"' _Whatever I want…'_ " she murmured. Then, sharply again, " _I_ know. If I am to rule the galaxy beside you, and be a Dark Sith Lordess, my name shall _Cadia._ The Lady Cadia."

She locked eyes with Ben as he said, "I like it."

"Me, too!" she smiled, and went back to shocking Luke. She had not quite reached the snow yet, and wanted eak out every little bit of pain she could out of this descent, for her _one-time_ father.

Then she reached the snow, and walked slowly up to Luke, her one hand still in the air frying his brains. Then she dropped her hand and everything was silent and still, even the wind, which suddenly stopped blowing and allowed her hair and cape to fall down freely again over her face and shoulders. She took a final step up to Luke's stiff position, where he was forced to stare up at her against his will and choke out his last breaths under the powerful eye of Kylo Ren. But with that final step, she looked down into Luke's ghastly pale face with blood stains under his nose and thick black circles under his eyes from her assault, and murmured again to her beloved, "Release him. I have him."

So Ben put down his hand as well and Luke was allowed to fall once again to the cold, salty snow and rub his burning, sore, red-marked throat, but she was right. He couldn't look away, nor, still, could he speak. It was as though simply her eyes upon had put him under a sort of trance or spell, as though with the powers of Supreme Leader she was already paving the way for new reaches and uses of the Dark Side of the Force.

He struggled through the spell, though, to say, pitiful and weak, "Rey…"

Ben raised his flaming sword to Luke's face and spat, "Silence, old fool—" but Rey, for the third time, quieted him with a hand raised.

"No," she said, in that new silky, murmury voice of hers, "It's okay. I want to hear what he has to say." She had not once taken her eyes off of Skywalker. Solo retreated once more. "Go on, then, Skywalker. What have you to say?"

"Rey…" bled Luke, "I'm—I'm sorry…"

Rey looked almost troubled, almost confused. "Is… Is that all, then?" she asked, softly, like a murmuring stream. "Oh, well. Perhaps you should have taken your chance to say it to Rey when she _actually_ cared." Now she finally tensed her arm, palm up, from its fallen position by her side, and placed him into an even more _powerful_ Force-choke strangle-hold. "Because, Rey isn't here anymore. I don't actually have any _idea_ why you've been saying her name like you have. My name is _Cadia._ Dark Lady Cadia. Nice to meet you."

would you… That's _so_ exhausting…"

Their eyes met again, and a shivering smile raced between them at once as Ren so gladly raised his hand to again strangle Luke, now again sitting up perfectly stiffly. Then, as Cadia returned to her electrocution, he placed his other hand beneath his cloak and drew out the lightsaber which had slain Snoke, which had once belonged to Luke and then to Rey Skywalker, but now was possessed by Lady Cadia of the First Order. He held it out to his bride.

"Do it, Rey… Cadia… It's time. We've… _You've_ waited long enough."

But Sith-witch Cadia met his eyes now grinning slyly. "Thank you, love, but I prefer the more… _personal touch._ "

And with that she raised her other hand high well—her left hand—as hot blue lightning began to pour out of it as well. As she held her two hands up above the head of the greatest Jedi Knight in the galaxy _ever—_ the _warrior_ Luke Skywalker, she looked up towards the gaping, gasping Resistance survivors looking out from their cavernous bunker, and said Darkly in a giant, force-magnified voice, "Are you watching?"

And the she looked down at the now purple-and-black spotted face beneath her (Luke had now closed his eyes, at peace with the Force), and began to slowly move her hands closer to Luke's face. And then it happened, all in a moment. Her lightning-streaking hands touched both his temples, and the man erupted into flames. She shrieked with gleeful laughter stretched her right hand directly outwards towards Kylo, from whose jacket then flew her lightsaber (the lightsaber which had once belonged to the man before her) into her long-nailed hand, and as its blade erupted forth from it, she slashed—

—and hacked off the head of Luke Skywalker—

—and the blade flashed all at once into blood-red—

—and—in the instants left before the flesh of Skywalker dissolved into the Force—the stretched out her left hand over the snow and the flaming head soared directly upwards into her hand, and she grasped the head by its long, burning hair—

—and she shrieked, laughing hideously, to the ones in the bunker,

" _DO YOU SEE YOUR LEADER? DO YOU SEE YOUR_ DOOM _?_ "

—and then—

And then Luke Skywalker rested with his fathers and his flesh became at peace with the Force, and it was over.

The body, the head disappeared, and all that was left of him was a cloak burning fitfully on the snow.

**  
And with the death of Luke Skywalker, the death of Rey was done also, and her transformation into Lady Cadia was completed. The prophecy seen by Kylo Ren had come to pass. She had turned. The Last Jedi… was dead.

"Come, Lover," said the Dark Mistress Cadi, black hair and black cape whipping in the wind, as she turned and walked back towards the gaping black mouth of the command ship whose tongue was her ramp into glory, and her soon to be husband followed at her side. "We are finished here. Make them round up these rebels and let us go and be finished with their filth and the stench of all this gore and be wedded and make love together in your spaceship."

Finally at the top of the ramp, as Storm Troopers poured forth around them and from every attach vessel on the planet, Lord Ren stooped to enter the darkness of his warmaking chamber (which soon would be eclipsed by his lovemaking chamber as his favorite place in the galaxy) and murmured, face awash in the red glow within, "As you wish, my—

"My love?"

She had not followed him in, but stood there on the ramp, straddling the line between the light and the darkness, face hidden from him.

Again, he said, slightly more forcefully this time, "My love?"

Another moment passed in which she did not respond to him…

But then she looked up at him, and he could see that what had been stealing her attention from her beloved was not doubts as to her place in the Darkness, but—

Her mask, which she had Force-retrieved from its rest in the snow as they walked up the ramp. She had been inspecting the visor of the mask with much thought, as though looking into the reflection of her own eyes. Presently, though, she met Ren's gaze, and said,

"You know, Darling, you were right about these things. They're not stylish _at all._ From an entirely _dead_ generation."

And with that, she stretched out her arm once more and the thing flew from her touch as the cruiser, now emptied of troops (and, upon her request, of the presence General Hux, as well, whose lifeless form had been cast to the snow after Ren had snapped his neck for his Dark Bride) ascended to the heavens.

The last of the Resistance had been captured.

They counted none more than a handful of broken leaders and hopeless pilots.

Rey had taken Cadia for his bride.

Leia was a lifeless wick, a snapped reed.

But as she sat in the dungeon of the Star Destroyer, she thought she heard something pass quickly by the skin of the ship before it jumped to lightspeed.

None of the others seemed to have heard it, though, so she slouched down to the dirty floor with them to await their arrival at the Homeworld Base of the New Empire (Cadia thought "First Order" was far too dull and boring, and her first action as Supreme Leader beside Lord Kylo Ren was to wipe away that wretched name). But just the same, a spark of hope had been ignited within her once again…

It was true. Leia had heard a craft outside, or rather _sensed it_ through the Force.

It was an Action VI smuggling craft, invisible to First Order (or rather New Empire) sensors, the only ship to respond to the distress signal sent from the rebel base far below…

A ship in which sat a single occupant… A woman as old as Leia… with friends: smugglers, _arms_ dealers… _assassins_ … a woman with long, dark red hair that was still just as beautiful as it had been when she was young… who was looking down at an uncharted planet with a dead military base from an Old rebellion…

"I failed you…" she murmured, turning the craft slowly around, tired of seeing the dry white glow beneath her…

"But I will not fail our _daughter…_ "

...finally ending the turn, looking out from the viewport before her into the stars, where several Star Destoyers had just jumped into Hyperspace with the last remnant fighters of the Resistance…

...and accelerated into lightspeed, flying off into the stars behind them.


End file.
